It's almost time to welcome in the New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful, blessed Christmas with your family and friends...taking time to reflect on the 

true meaning of Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

Here is a small peek into our Christmas traditions!

On December 19th, we had our annual Troll Stroll celebration.  This is a progressive dinner with our Norwegian friends and family.  

The first stop is appetizers...herring, salmon, shrimp and cheeses. To drink...glogg! YUM!  

As you can see, I forgot to take pictures until the bowls and plates were just about empty!

The second stop is the main meal...polse, limpa, and soup.  This is also the visit from the Nisse lady and Trollina (Nisse lady apprentice) bearing gifts for the children.  

The third stop was at our house this year! DESSERTS!  Several kinds of traditional Norwegian cookies, krumkake, ricecream, and kransekake (ring cake) and, of coarse, coffee and liqueurs.

My husband made 3 kransekake this year and they were delicious!

After plenty of food and celebration, we relax and sing (thanks to Frank our guitar player).  

We had a fabulous time! 

The very next evening, we hosted what has become known as the 

4 friend's families party.  We have been getting together at Christmas since all our children have been very small. 

 We raised our children together, attended the same church and school.  

As now our children are mostly grown and our lives have taken different paths, we strive to continue getting together at Christmas. As you could say, we have HISTORY.  

On Christmas Eve, we are invited to our dear friends home for more Norwegian traditions.  Appetizers of herring, cheese, flatbread, and lingonberries.  

We eat the most scrumptious dinner of medista-polse, pork roast, rutabaga, potatoes, and vegetables. 

We attend church together for a time of worship and reflection.  

Then back for dessert, coffee and our exchange of gifts. 

We have the best times together!

Sad to say that I didn't take many pictures this year...

Christmas Day morning is spent at home with our immediate family opening gifts, lots of coffee and my traditional cranberry almond coffee cake.  In the afternoon, we celebrate with my extended family...grandma, cousins, aunts and uncles [this year, at my brother's home]. The annual ornament exchange, presents to/from grandma, turkey dinner, pumpkin pie, cookies and chocolates...

I really must get better at remembering to take pictures. 

Tomorrow we are off for some wonderful relaxing moments in Wisconsin at the beautiful Osthoff Resort with our dear friends, Ken & Ruth and family.  We cherish this time together!

Where has the time gone?

Well it is already into November and I'm just finding time to post about the new theme for the Charming Girl's Club.  Check it out!

This is one of my favorite times of year because it is full of family, friends and traditions!  

Thanksgiving [which is quickly approaching] is a time to reflect on all the blessings in our lives.  We get together for the traditional Thanksgiving feast - turkey with dressing, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberries, rolls and of coarse pumpkin pie!  My grandmother used to make the pumpkin pies for the holidays and she passed down her recipe to me.  I am now the family pumpkin pie baker.  I do love pumpkin pie!

Once Thanksgiving is celebrated, Christmas is right around the corner.  Although the stores think Christmas starts in October, I really start my Christmas shopping on Black Friday.  I am not one to get up at 4:00 am to run out to the stores and stand in line for one item and then head to the next store (although I have been out shopping early on occasion). I tend to look thru the ads and determine if there are items that are on my shopping lists.  If not, I stay at home and enjoy the time with family.  Do you go out early shopping on Black Friday?

We love getting together with friends [that we don't see often] to celebrate Christmas.  One of the events is what we call the Troll Stroll.  This is a progressive dinner with some of our Norwegian friends.  We have 3 stops - appetizers, dinner and dessert.  It is nice to visit their houses to see how they decorate for the holiday.  We also have a crazy tradition of the 'Nisse Lady'.  She is the bearer of gifts to the children. 

Dressed in traditional clothing, she come knocking on the door bringing gifts. 

We also set a date to attend the Julebord with some more Norwegians friends.  Again, we have delicious traditional food like herring, flatbread, salmon, cheeses, and of coarse desserts.  

There are so many more traditions during this time of year.  

A real tree! 

Kransekaker!

I will be share more later...goals to come too!